Civil War Activity Plans

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  1. Letter Home/Characterization/Language Arts/Social Studies- Students read primary source documents from the civil war, look at artifact kit. Look at The Shaw Memorial. Pick a person depicted in the sculpture and write a letter “home,” pretending to be that person. Add interesting details about yourself, or your family and the life you are now leading. Have the letter refer to at least one other person in the sculpture, describing that person, how you got to know them and how you are alike, or different from them. What experiences in the war have made you feel closer to that person? Your letter might include whether you are writing the letter yourself, or whether someone else is acting as scribe for you, because you don’t write, or do not write well.
  1. Copying a master artist, drawing profiles, The Illusion of Depth/Art- Students will copy and draw one line of profiles of the marching men they see in the Shaw Memorial, including hat, collar and shoulders if visible. They will take note of how to increase a sense of depth on a flat surface by using the techniques of overlapping, size and position, shading and detail. Next, they will model for each other, and draw a profile of one of their classmates, putting them in the same line of soldiers.
  1. Civil War tunes/Music-Music of the Civil War and popular dances of the period. Students will be taughtSojourner Truth’s version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Have students divide into teams of 3-4. Each team will write an additional verse to the song. Sing the whole song together, including the new student verses. (Can be used as post site-visit activity.)
  1. Victorian Dance/PE/Social Studies- Everyone danced during the Civil War period. Dances were done in circles, lines and squares. Couples danced with other couples and everyone switched partners often. Formal rules of etiquette applied at a ball. Teach and execute a Victorian dance.(Can be used as post site-visit activity.)
  1. Civil War Currency/Math/Art – Discussion of coinage used during the Civil War, and Saint-Gaudens tribute to the United States’ emerging greatness after the Civil War through the coins he designed for President Theodore Roosevelt. What are the symbols that must be present on a U.S. silver or gold dollar? Students will be asked to think of an image, possibly of an allegorical figure that could symbolize a value or virtue that could inspire citizens of our country today. Students will design on paper, and then create in clay ($), a low relief of that image as their proposed coin. *$ This is a fee activity.